Chookshed Challenge 2025 - March update

 

Well, my #2 challenge for February is completed (actually finished late last year but I included it on the list as I still hadn't handed it over to the parents.)  That was A's quilt.  Here he is, looking cute with his quilt.

Here is my challenge list for 2025:

1. complete strip sets for blue strip twist quilt
2. quilt and bind A's quilt
3. second backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
4. quilt and bind S's quilt
5. quilt and bind R's quilt
6. continue flower blocks for J's quatro quilt
7. complete bunny Fat Quarter Mixer quilt top
8. start on Amelie's quilt
9. backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
10. quilt and bind Mason's quilt

What is April's number?  Deana's random number generator chose #4!  So that's easy for this month, as I've already completed S's quilt.  Which is handy as I'm heading away on holiday and won't have time this month to do much sewing.  

Chookshed Challege 2025 - Deana from Dreamworthy Quilts is one member of the Chookshed Quilters.  Each month in 2025, Deana will select a number from one to ten and quilters work on the project with the corresponding number from their own list.  The main rule for this challenge is that there are no rules, which should work for me as I am away for large chunks of 2025.  For example, if the number six is chosen, and that particular month is a bit tricky to work on that numbered project from my list, I can change the project!  And a goal could be just masking minimal progress on a particular quilt.  I like those sorts of rules.  

Here are the links to other participants:

Amira Little Mushroom Cap

Betty Rainbow Connection Quilters 

Chookyblue

Chris Quilting at the Farm

Deana Dreamworthy Quilts - you are here!

Denice's Day

Grace City Mouse Quilter

Hanne Quilt Corner

Jannimary

Jeanette - 3 Cats & a Quilter

Jenny Bird on the Border

Jenny Romany Quilting

Jo Butter Z

Kate Life in Pieces

Karen's Corner

Kiwikids Page

Kristi - not a blogger; you can find her here

Lianne Makes Stuff

Lin St Victor Quilts

LouLee

Lyndsey Sew Many Yarns

Maggie - Patch Maggie

Maria Life on the Block

Maureen - not a blogger; you can find her here

Narelle Pins and WhiskersPam's Progress

Rose Marie Applique' and Patches

Sharm Country Fragrance

Susan's Sewing Space

March is complete

This month, I attended an Unfinished Project Weekend, which went off very well.  So nice to work beside like minded people, bounce ideas off each other, chat, eat some delicious food, and focus on just one thing.  We had three days in a big room where we could leave our machines set up, we were given morning and afternoon teas, and lunch each day, and could stay until 9pm if we wanted to!  I really enjoyed the three days - catching up with people that I hadn't seen in a while, uninterrupted sewing time, and the air-con in the venue kept the 37+ temps at bay.  (Very warm for mid-March.)  

It was hard to decide what projects to take to work on but my final choice was three projects: Roshaan's quilt, Amelie's quilt, and the blue strip twist quilt.  

R's quilt needed quilting and I completed several hours on it but the space didn't allow me to spread it out properly, so I just did the straight line quilting in-the-ditch and diagonal lines across the blocks. I finished the quilting at home.

The blocks for the pink-ish plus quilt for Amelie had been all cut out and laid out on my portable design board (a flannel backed tablecloth) so I worked on piecing the blocks into rows and then into a (partial) top.  However, I must have measured incorrectly last year when I did the layout on the design tablecloth.  I had 16 x 4" squares across the quilt instead of the thirteen I wanted.  So I ended up unpicking three squares from the end of each row and tidying it up.  I have to lengthen the top with another three or four rows and that required more brain power than I had on the weekend.  I will get back to it eventually.  

The 8 1/2" strip blocks were all ready pieced and cut out for the blue strip twist quilt.  See what I did with them here  More photos and explanations as it was my contribution to Scrap Happy Day for March.

Roshaan's quilt:  finished size (after quilting and washing) = 51" x 75" (129.5 x 190.5 cm.)  Pattern is one I have used regularly with I Spy blocks.  All fabrics from my stash.  I quilted the border in a different way - with the walking foot but just meandering slowly down each side three times, crossing over the lines occasionally.  Another quilter at the Unfinished Projects Weekend showed me this and I quite liked it for it ease of quilting and simplicity.  I'm happy I've now finished quilts for the four cousins in that family - now to start on other quilts.  

There was a trading table at the Unfinished Projects Weekend!  Temptation.  I tried really hard to resist but if I bought something it was helping the Days for Girls group (which I'm part of) so I did buy a few bits and pieces.  I couldn't resist a nice piece of batik and a pretty print with birds on it.  There was a 2m piece of a Japanese fabric which would go nicely into my box of Japanese fabrics.   (One day I will make a lovely quilt out of those fabrics!)  I also purchased a stitchery kit of a rooster, with a friend in mind for it.  

March 2025 fabric tally

Finishes in the month:   Roshaan's quilt = 5 m

Purchases in the month:    6m

Fabric used:  - 5 m         Fabric acquired:  + 6 m

Running tally for 2025:  - 23.25 m    (I'm still ahead for 2025!)

Scrap Happy Day March 2025 - better late than never!

Each month, on the 15th, a group of people post on their blogs about their use of scraps over the previous four weeks.  Generally it is fabric but not always, and there are some innovative uses of scraps displayed.  Kate sends a reminder email so we don't forget to post on the 15th of the month.  See below for details of how you can join in.  It is a great incentive to get things done.

I wasn't at home on the 15th so am hoping that posting this on the 17th will be okay.  

In the last month, I've worked on a few scrap quilts.

Two baby quilt tops from scraps of fabrics used for Days for Girls menstrual health kits.  I had to work with the strip widths I had and the colours.  Bright and cheerful.  I will wait until I have a few quilt tops for DfG before the next steps in turning them into quilts.  

A couple of months ago, I grabbed all the blue-ish 2.5" strips from the strip box and sewed them into dark/light pairs and then into strips of four.  I then cross cut the strips into 8.5" blocks.

The blocks are then cut on the diagonal and sewn together with different pairs of triangles, so the darks and lights alternate.  Trim the blocks to 8" square and lay them out.  

Sew the blocks together and voila!  A quilt top with movement and a secondary pattern in it, and I've used up a bunch of 2.5" strips.  Because I wasn't planning very well, some of the fabrics are lights in some pairs, and darks in others.  However, it still works.  The pattern is one of Bonnie Hunter's scrap patterns, the strip twist   I plan to add a border to this quilt which should make it around 55" x 75", a nice lap quilt size.  When that will happen though, who knows!

Do check out Bonnie's website.  There are heaps of free patterns, perfect for using up all those fabric scraps we can't bear to throw out.  

The bloggers below are all ScrapHappy Day participants, maybe not every month, but their blogs are worth looking at.  If you want to join in too, contact Kate below and have some fun with scraps.  Kate sends a reminder email each month, a few days before the 15th, so you can post about your work with scraps.      

Kate, Eva, Sue, Lynda,

Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan, 

Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,

Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,

Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, 

 Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,

Nóilin, Viv, Karrin,  Alissa,

 Tierney, Hannah and Maggie

February 2025 Chookshed Challenge report

February's number was 10 and I've completed Mason's quilt!  Happy that I've done that.  

My challenge number 6 from January is still continuing, with February spent planning the flowers in the next round and then joining them (with their cross) into pairs and then the pairs into fours, then the fours into eights. I'm hoping that my evenings in front of the TV in March will be spent adding the four sections onto the rest of the quilt.  Fingers crossed.  

Deana from Dreamworthy Quilts has chosen the new number for the March challenge.  It is #2 so, as I know I've actually finished that one (in January), I will work on another number.  I will be away from home for about four months this year so will keep the embroidery kit numbers for those months and the quilts I've completed.  (Not sure that I should have started this challenge this year, however it is done now.  We will see how we go.)

My list is as follows:

1. complete strip sets for blue strip twist quilt
2. quilt and bind A's quilt
3. second backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
4. quilt and bind S's quilt
5. quilt and bind R's quilt
6. continue flower blocks for J's quatro quilt
7. complete bunny Fat Quarter Mixer quilt top
8. start on Amelie's quilt
9. backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
10. quilt and bind Mason's quilt

Chookshed Challege 2025 - Deana from Dreamworthy Quilts is one member of the Chookshed Quilters.  Each month in 2025, Deana will select a number from one to ten and quilters work on the project with the corresponding number from their own list.  The main rule for this challenge is that there are no rules, which should work for me as I am away for large chunks of 2025.  For example, if the number six is chosen, and that particular month is a bit tricky to work on that numbered project from my list, I can change the project!  And a goal could be just masking minimal progress on a particular quilt.  I like those sorts of rules.  

February finishes

Finally, I'm quilting the children's quilts I'd finished piecing in November.  My sewing machine's free-motion quilting was enabled by the repair guy fixing the bobbin tension in January. Hooray!  August's quilt was finished in January and the following ones were finished in February.  One more next month and they will be done, and I can get started on the next quilts I have planned.  

Samaira's quilt:  finished size = 52.5" x 78" (133 x 198cm.) Pattern is the Plus Sign quilt (or the Modern Plus, or just plain Plus).  All fabrics from my stash, including part of a fat quarter bundle I picked up years ago, intending it to be for a young girl's quilt.  I have cut enough block pieces for a second quilt of a similar size.  Quilted in the ditch on the the pluses, and a vague squiggle in the name blocks. 

 

Mason's quilt:  finished size = 51.25" x 71.5" (130 x 181 cm.)  Pattern is the Confetti Quilt from the "Super Simple Fat Quarter Quilts" book by Lynda Milligan and Nancy Smith.  Fabric is a layer cake of brights, plus a bit of extra fabric from my stash.  The layer cake was purchased in the USA last year, from Missouri Star Quilt Company in Hamilton, Missouri.  Quilted with the walking foot in the main blocks, with a stipple with the free motion foot in the name block, and free motion in the two borders.  I'm not sure about having the borders only on top and bottom.  I just wanted to make the quilt a touch longer, but not any wider.  

        

All the quilts this month have labels printed on fabric.  It is getting harder to get the labels printed, as fewer people have inkjet printers these days.  We've stopped using ours as the ink cartridges cost too much.  I just use the public library printer these days for the small amount of printing I do but can't use the special fabric there.  What do other quilters do?  I can hand write the labels, and often do, but it is nice to have a colour label with maybe a picture on it.

I had a bit of a win this week, when binding Mason's quilt.  I ended up with only 4" of binding left when I attached it.  Often I have a lot more than that left over and need to incorporate it into a scrappy binding.  

February 2025 fabric tally

Finishes in the month:   Samaira's quilt = 5.75 m; Mason's quilt = 5.25 m ; Maree's dachshund quilt = 5 m.

Purchases in the month:    none (I'm feeling very virtuous, no fabric bought in two months!)

Fabric used:  - 16 m         Fabric acquired:  + 0 m

Running tally for 2025:  - 22.25 m

A squirrel appeared!

A squirrel!:  I made a quilt for a good friend who loves dachshunds.  I decided around Christmas to make this quilt and ordered the pattern online.  Once it arrived, I started working on the quilt, rather than leave it until "later".  I had the deadline of Maree's birthday on 16th February to finish it.  

This was the first time I'd used an Elizabeth Hartman pattern, and won't be the last.  It was easy to follow and well-written.  The four dog blocks came together over two days in January, and adding the other parts of the quilt top was relatively quick and easy.  I thought this quilt really deserved a special quilting pattern so I outsourced the quilting to Sharron at Shadow's Quilting.  She did a great job using an edge to edge pattern of dogs and paw prints.  I hope Maree likes this quilt. 

After quilting and washing, the quilt shrank 1.25" across and 1.75" down - to be expected.  Although I used colour catchers in the wash, there was some slight bleeding of the bright pink trims on the pink sweatered dog, through to the backing fabric.  I noticed it but hope that not many others would see it.  

Maree's quilt:  finished size = 54.25" x 68.75" (138 x 175 cm.)  All fabric from stash.  I made a backing for the longarm quilter so I could use up more stash fabric rather than buy the backing from her.   

The first block, went together much easier than I expected.  

A litter is born!

I decided one dog needed trendy glasses

The finished quilt.

The quilting pattern

First challenge month finished and new one started

January was my first month of participation in the Chookshed Challenge, where we work on a particular project each month, using an individual numbered list and having Deana draw that month’s number to decide what we work on. 

6 was January’s number so I certainly did progress the Quatro quilt, hand piecing at least thirty flowers in the month and I’ve started joining them to the medium grey crosses for the next round of the quilt.  Since this is what I work on in the evenings while watching TV, it wasn’t hard to progress it and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the next round of the quilt will all be attached by the end of March.

This is the quilt top so far.  There will be three more rounds of blocks.

February’s number is 10. On my list this is work on stitcheries while travelling. Since I’m not away much this month, I’m swapping numbers so will work on quilting and binding Mason’s quilt. I should make the most of the free motion quilting now working on my machine. 

My rearranged list is as follows:

1. complete strip sets for blue strip twist quilt
2. quilt and bind A's quilt
3. second backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
4. quilt and bind S's quilt
5. quilt and bind R's quilt
6. continue flower blocks for J's quatro quilt
7. complete bunny Fat Quarter Mixer quilt top
8. start on Amelie's quilt
9. backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
10. quilt and bind Mason's quilt